Kenmore Elite SS question

[jrudyjr]

This unit seems to be running all of the time. The freezer section seems to be frosting up on the inside.Temperatures on both sides seem normal. Ice is forming on the underside of the ice maker and the drawer handles and the inside of the freezer condenses with moisture when you open the door. How can I check that this unit is operating properly. Thanks, Jim

Model 106.54609300

[Repair-man]

One of the doors is not sealing properly along the edge of the cabinet. This includes the gasket inside the ice chute.  Any air infiltrating the freezer from outside will present as frost. Since temperatures have not yet been affected, we can likely rule out a defrost problem right now.

Check to see that all crisper drawers and shelves are in place and not protruding on both sections.

[JWWebster]

Check your gaskets for cracks or tears or improper gaps. Make sure your doors close tightly. Look for the freshfood compartment to become warmer and the freezer section to ice up. If it ices up then more than likely one of the defrost components have failed. Most likely the heater.

[jrudyjr]

Checked the door gaskets and the ice door all seem to be o.k. It appears that the ice maker may be overfilling with water. We found ice that had frozen in puddles under the maker on top of some boxes directly under the ice maker. We have shut off the ice maker to see if this takes care of the problem. The last time this refrigerator did something similar was after an extended power outage two years ago. We ran the unit off of a generator and all was well when the power returned for several days. We awoke one morning to ice sprayed all over the freezer. We cleaned up the ice and several days later the ice maker quit working. I replaced the ice maker and all was normal. We have just had a power outage that lasted 5 days two weeks ago. And the first thing we noticed this week was ice down the right hand side of the freezer wall and icicles under the ice maker.

[JWWebster]

The copper plate mounted behind the main drive gear which fires up the water valve will get non conductive over tiime. The constant arcing causes the copper to be burned, get a sand cloth and clean that copper.

[jrudyjr]

Is the copper you refer to in the drive of the ice maker? If it is I would assume the maker needs to come out, which is no big deal.But I may just replace it.From what I have seen in our general area people with well water, even though they have softeners, only get about two to three years out of their ice makers. I may take it out and have a look when I get some time later in the week. Thanks

[whirlpooltech]

But I may just replace it.

Replacing the ice maker is a much better idea then trying to repair it.

[JWWebster]

The little copper plate is mounted on the reverse side of the main drive gear.As the ice maker rotates around,the printed circuit board has a copper tit that rubs against that triangular shaped copper plate near the end of the harvest cycle. There is more surface area on the copper the closer to the edge you get. Look on the right hand side in the middle of the ice maker. Their is a small plastic adjustment screw. If you turn it a hair one way or other it will make that tit move farther away from the edge (less water) or closer to the edge (more water). The plate will get all black over time from arcing and dampness especially in areas with salt water like where I live.

[whirlpooltech]

This is what it looks like inside your ice maker.

[JWWebster]

Look to your left and see that screw midways? That is the water level adjustment screw. The picture you see is the backside of the head. A nice pic indeed. To get to that plate I mentioned however you must CAREFULLY use some needle nose pliers and remove the main drive gear to access that plate. I wish I had a pic to show you but I do not....yet.
Perhaps the illustrious whirlpool tech has such a pic.That would be super.
WT by the way that is a nice Whirlpool logo you have there. Whirlpool is the very best brand out there. It is nice to have someone representing the brand. Outstanding.

[Repair-man]

Whirlpool may be your brand of choice, O Sublime One, but the module is still made in a sweat shop in China.


I never knew anyone who took apart a module down to the contact plate. I bow down to your munificence!

[JWWebster]

I love to do autopsy's. Maybe we oughta get AJ to have a section on it.
We could call it Appliance CSI. (crappy stuff investigators)

[Repair-man]

Is it at all possible that you were dropped on your head as an infant?

[JWWebster]

Yeah but luckily I am Irish. We are hard headed!

[Repair-man]

I have a feeling that this topic has not yet been dealt with as it could have, so I will offer one more scenario  on this gents freezer icing up.

If those door gaskets check out OK, then there is a good chance that the icemaker  got stuck in the harvest cycle by a jammed cube. If this happens, and it is rare, the heater in the icemaker mold will stay on and cause heat buildup in the freezer. This causes the  unit to run constantly due to the increased temps and also creates icicles from the dripping condensate close to the  icemaker.

If you had experienced any hollow ice cubes in your bucket before all this started, then you need a new water valve on back to resolve the fill issue. As these valves begin to  fail, only the first 7 cubes in the mold will fill, causing the icemaker to cycle prematurely. Usually the last cube is partially hollow, and the ejector fingers get stuck on them and jam the mechanism.